Former Guns N' Roses drummer Matt Sorum working to keep arts in LAUSD schools
LOS ANGELES (FOX 11) - Former Guns N' Roses drummer Matt Sorum is working to give all Los Angeles children the opportunity to learn about music in public schools.
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) estimates that only 50 percent of elementary school students are getting some kind of art instruction at school.
Sorum said he wanted to help change that statistic.
"The public school system, they were cutting the arts," Sorum explained during an appearance Friday on our show. "I ended up going down and talking to the superintendent of the schools… I did a speech in front of the board and then they invited me to meet them and I told them I wanted to help."
The Grammy Award-winning drummer and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee ended up co-founding the Adopt the Arts Foundation with a mission to save the arts in public schools.
The foundation initially raised enough money for 1,000 instruments. It now has two fully-funded schools, paying for the teachers, more instruments and the curriculum, Sorum said.
"I just really feel for these kids," he said. "I want to give them as much chance as they can have in life."
Sorum spent seven years drumming for Guns N' Roses and continues to play with Velvet Revolver, the cover band Camp Freddy as well as Hollywood Vampires with Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp and Joe Perry.
His foundation is holding a benefit concert May 12 at the Fonda Theatre for elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The night will honor 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple) and Robin Zander (Cheap Trick).
Artists scheduled to perform include Sorum, Gilby Clark (GN'R), Corey Taylor (Slipknot), Dean Deleo and Robert Deleo (Stone Temple Pilots), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and more.
"It's a no-brainer. Our kids need music and art."
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